Most of the decent roads for riding a GS off the pavement will be on the NW side of Houston and heading North up the West side of I-45. The further out you get from Houston, the more dirt/gravel you will find because they are paving everything down that way. On the East side of I-45, you have to get out past Conroe before you can find much dirt. Generally, you find dirt/gravel on the West side of I-45 and more sand on the East side, especially the further East you go.

If you get up North of Hwy 105 between I-45 and Hwy 6, there are a bunch of county roads and some decent forest service roads. Once you get West of Hwy 6, there is less dirt and more of those little one lane chip sealed county roads.

If you don't mind sand, there are a lot of fun little county roads NE of Huntsville heading out FM 980, 3487, and 230 going toward Trinity and Lovelady.

My GS is down for a refit right now in preparation for a trip to Montana. Updating headlights, new PIAA light mount, new tires, new crash bars (AltRider bars crapped out and are a pain because I have to remove then to get the head covers off the motor). So I won't likely be out riding it until after I get back from Montana, which will be late July when it is nice and HOT!

Most of the decent roads for riding a GS off the pavement will be on the NW side of Houston and heading North up the West side of I-45. The further out you get from Houston, the more dirt/gravel you will find because they are paving everything down that way. On the East side of I-45, you have to get out past Conroe before you can find much dirt. Generally, you find dirt/gravel on the West side of I-45 and more sand on the East side, especially the further East you go.

If you get up North of Hwy 105 between I-45 and Hwy 6, there are a bunch of county roads and some decent forest service roads. Once you get West of Hwy 6, there is less dirt and more of those little one lane chip sealed county roads.

If you don't mind sand, there are a lot of fun little county roads NE of Huntsville heading out FM 980, 3487, and 230 going toward Trinity and Lovelady.

My GS is down for a refit right now in preparation for a trip to Montana. Updating headlights, new PIAA light mount, new tires, new crash bars (AltRider bars crapped out and are a pain because I have to remove then to get the head covers off the motor). So I won't likely be out riding it until after I get back from Montana, which will be late July when it is nice and HOT!

The KTM is down for new tires and headlight for the same trip.

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Awesome, I don't think I'm looking for sand right away. But to be more specific I am mainly in the Conroe/Woodlands area. My main concern is going down a road I'm not suppose to be on and dealing with whoever is mad about it. I got about a month and a half to really work through these TKC's before replacing them on or before my trip in August (yup hot.) So pretty much mainly looking for guidance/buddy/group to help me explore whats out there and get me a little more used to a bigger bike off road.

Private roads really aren't much of an issue. Most will have a gate and be obvious. In this area, there really aren't any roads where you have to stop, go through a gate, and then continue on your way like you might have to do out in the Hill Country. In all the years I have been riding out here, only ONCE have I ever stumbled onto a private road, on a deer lease. There was no gate and the map showed it being a county road. The hunters politely informed me it was a private lease and I left. I once encountered a little old lady at the end of a dead end road and she was curious why I was back there. I explained I was trying to see if it connected to another road as the map showed. She told me it did not, then started asking questions about my Camel-Bak. She'd never seen one. She thought it was so cool she got her husband to come look at it because she wanted to get him one to use while out on their property working. They were pleasant and I was on my way. I don't recall ever having any negative experiences related to being on the wrong road. The key is to play innocent and just be nice. Once most folks realize you are not up to something sinister, they relax and actually enjoy talking to someone that is not part of their everyday routine. I even met a 104 year old lady at a little cemetery in the woods. Her kids brought her there to visit her long departed husband's grave. She proceeded to give us the history of all the families buried in that cemetery. She'd lived in that area her whole life. It was kind of cool listening to her.

If you have a GPS, I have a boat load of GPX tracks I can send you. Shoot me an email at Tourmeister@twtex.com.

I just recently picked up my first dual sport (a CRF 250 Rally), and got back on two wheels. I had dirt bikes as a kid, but then moved to street bikes...and then stopped riding all together for the last 7-8 years. I'm having a lot of fun exploring the local area at little slower pace!

I live at Possum Kingdom Lake (west of Ft. Worth). Looks like there may be a couple of you guys out this way. I'm always looking for places to ride, where I don't have to keep the 250's throttle pinned to keep up with traffic!

You boys come up here to NW Arkansas and I will show you the best dualsport riding in the midwest region.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

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Actually...

I was planning on taking a ride up there the week after next, but I've had to cancel my plans (I hate working for a living). I was planning on staying at Devil's Den and working out from there. Maybe in the fall instead!

Just purchased a KLR 650 and I've been putting on as many miles as possible!
Mainly because I live in Odessa, and I have to ride 4 hours to find anything worth riding.
I'm looking to meet other people in the area and do some trips.

You boys come up here to NW Arkansas and I will show you the best dualsport riding in the midwest region.

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I was up there just before Easter and again Memorial Day Weekend. Both times I had my 1200 GS so I could take my two oldest kids out riding, and I had my 2010 KTM 530 EXC for doing some more challenging riding. The kids had their dirt bikes as well. We spent a few days up near Calico Rock in a cabin on the White River. Both kids got to do some fun forest roads in the Push Mountain area. The creek crossings were hairy as the water was up pretty high and moving fast at that time. After a few days of that we headed West over near Kingston to ride off road stuff at the Wilderness Rider & Buffalo Ranch OHV park. They have over 2500 acres of incredible land with trails, creeks, water falls, swimming holes, caves, remote camping, etc,...

On the Memorial Day trip, we started in Clarksville and rode the GS out to Mt Judea, then hit some backroads down the East side of the mountains to Falling Water Falls. The next day we ran all the way up to Peel Ferry via backroads. Then we tried to run up 125 to the North end of Mo H, but there was a bridge out on 125 at Brushy Creek. A construction guy was there and told us about a detour up and over the mountains that dropped us out about a mile past the bridge. Glade Top Trail and Skyline Drive were the roads. It was great. My son really enjoyed it. That let us complete our loop and we dropped back to Branson for dinner. Then it was a mad dash on back roads back down to Kingston to spend a few more days riding at the OHV park. One of the roads that was fun was Newton CR 1000, just West of Ponca off Hwy 43. We ran it from the West to Hwy 43 and it doesn't appear to see much traffic. We were dodging low hanging branches, deep ruts, and big rocks. Then, near the end, there is a series of fairly steep and loose switchbacks that eventually drop you out to Hwy 43. My son is usually pretty chatty on the communicators and moves around a lot, but for this section he got real quiet and still until we reached the end of it, hehe. We were doing a good bit of rear end sliding there!

If I could figure out how to make it work, I would definitely be living up in the NW part of Arkansas. Love it!

Love that road , it's the official short cut to the showers at Ponca . Headed to Colorado for west fest this year then west for three more weeks at Maybell , gotta show Desert Skies all my secreat trails I found last year . And find that many more .

Hello all! Finally starting to browse the forums. Recently picked up the new Desert Sled and have been searching for good off road trails but I'm finding it difficult as all of N. Texas is fenced off ranch land. Any helpful suggestions?

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Hello all! Finally starting to browse the forums. Recently picked up the new Desert Sled and have been searching for good off road trails but I'm finding it difficult as all of N. Texas is fenced off ranch land. Any helpful suggestions?